Cover art for podcast The Grift

The Grift

14 EpisodesProduced by PanoplyWebsite

When we hear about confidence games, we think, “never me.” Welcome to The Grift, a show about con artists and the lives they ruin. Best-selling author and New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova takes us to the darker side of human nature and deceit. Ten stories about card sharks, cult leaders, art forger… read more

episodes iconAll Episodes

Farewell

February 22nd, 2024

0:39

An important message from RadioPublic

Introducing Empire on Blood

March 27th, 2018

5:40

From the Producers of The Grift and Revisionist History, Empire on Blood is a new podcast from Panoply that chronicles award-winning journalist Steve Fishman's seven-year investigation to uncover the truth behind a …

The Grift Presents: Family Ghosts

December 11th, 2017

55:32

The Grift presents an episode of another Panoply podcast we think our listeners will love: Family Ghosts.

When Nick's grandfather died in 1994, …

The Greatest Impostor

June 6th, 2017

40:02

Ferdinand Demara is quite possibly the greatest con artist you’ve never heard of. With good reason: he hardly ever used his own name. Demara was a …

Crooked Carnival

May 30th, 2017

33:04

Peter Fenton made a career out of crafting that con we’ve all fallen for: the con of fantasy, of alternative realities that are much more pleasant than the existing one. This week, we go inside the world of carnival …

Psychic Faith

May 23rd, 2017

32:39

A fraud is lurking on most every block of most every city and town, all over the world: the psychic. When you’re down, when you’re alone, when you’re …

For a Small Investment...

May 16th, 2017

33:29

Oscar Hartzell, born to humble beginnings, would go on to craft one of the most elaborate and successful mail fraud cons of all time. Pirates, lost …

The One Who Almost Got Away

May 9th, 2017

32:07

Sam Israel not only ran one of the most successful Ponzi schemes in history, he would eventually go on to the single most extreme con there is: the …

Loving a Lie

May 2nd, 2017

31:57

Maria talks with the Atlantic’s Emily Yoffe about the most common grift of them all: the sweetheart scam. It’s a catfishing bait and switch where the person you fall in love with isn’t the person you thought. It has …

The Religion of the Black Dog

April 25th, 2017

45:12

A small secretive cult was started in the 1970s and operated out of New Jersey for decades without notice. A survivor tells us her dark story of …

The Self-Made Heiress

April 18th, 2017

33:21

Cassie Chadwick was one of the most famous, or infamous, seductresses of the Gilded Age. She excelled at impersonating high society royalty—and at getting everyone in her path to shower her with cash, even though they …

Genuine Fake

April 11th, 2017

41:32

The only thing Ken Perenyi loved as much as art was swindling the art world. He relished the contest of wits, the risk of getting caught, the thrill …

Fast Jack, the Card Shark

April 4th, 2017

36:18

“Fast Jack” Farrell is one of the greatest card and dice manipulators of the twentieth century - an undisputed leader in the vast world of crooked …

Introducing: The Grift

March 30th, 2017

2:19

Coming soon from Panoply and Maria Konnikova, The Grift: stories about con artists and the lives they ruin.

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